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NEW DELHI  - India's Future Group needs to maintain status quo with respect to its $3.4 billion retail assets deal, the Delhi High Court said on Tuesday, giving interim relief to Amazon.com Inc as it battles to foil Future Group's asset sales to a rival.

Amazon, locked in protracted legal disputes with Future, alleges the Indian firm violated contracts by agreeing to sell its retail assets to rival Reliance Industries last year. Future denies any wrongdoing.

A judge hearing Amazon's plea on Tuesday said immediate orders were necessary to protect the U.S. company's rights, saying Future should maintain status quo for now.

Indian stock exchanges last month cleared Future's deal with Reliance, despite Amazon's repeated requests to regulators to block the deal.

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra in New Delhi and Abhirup Roy in Mumbai; Editing by Euan Rocha)